Bedroom tweaks

Our neighbor's daughter has started babysitting Sofia on Sunday afternoons and it's pretty much the best thing in the world.  They're actually family of our contractor's wife, who is Drew's co-worker so they're not complete strangers to us, which makes me feel better about things.  However, she's only 11, so she's more of a mother's helper since I don't leave the house while she's here, but let me tell you!  Having her here is an absolute godsend!  She hangs out with Sofia and I get to handle up on my house tasks without a toddler underfoot.  It's the best $20 I have ever spent.

This past Sunday, while Sydney hung out with Sofia I was able to finish painting the hallway and I played around with some stuff in the bedroom.  Oh wait.  Hang on.  I MEAN, I did some decorating in the bedroom.  Good Lord.  Or did that sound dirty just to me?

Ok, moving on...

We have a very very long way to go in our bedroom.  It's a mess of beige and brown.

Pardon the haze.

I really should have used the fancy camera for these, but I get impatient when I'm on a decorating roll and it's hard to stop and remember to take pictures with something other than my phone.

So let's talk about my nightstand.

This is what it looks like in real life.

My painting clothes are always on the floor, 

and whatever I wore that day gets thrown on top.

Plus, it's wrong to have something so janky next to something so pretty.

I shouldn't be such a slob.  But the problem is that my dresser lives the in guest bedroom and at the end of the day, it is far too hard to walk the ten steps to the other room and put my clothes back in my dresser.  The top of my nightstand is much closer and way more convenient.  Also, I'm lazy - if you didn't catch that.

But, something had to be done.  Mostly because Drew was starting to throw his stuff around too and whenever I'd hiss at him to put his stuff away, he would pointedly stare at The Pile.  And I hadn't been to Target in a couple of days and I was starting to twitch.

I tried a basket with a liner, but it was off-white 

and the lampshade is bright white, so that didn't work.

No liner is a little better but I wasn't feeling the tapered shape.

Dark woven rectangle it is!

Now my slobbiness is contained!

I also picked up a small capiz frame from Marshall's for five bucks.

It's true - you can see the bright red clearance sticker on it.

I'm thinking of putting Sofia's Halloween picture in it, or in the one on top of the dresser.

Because really, how could I *not* print this out?

So, with the nightstand done, I went to the lights next.

Our ceiling fan has these hideous smoky glass covers.  I actually can't stand that ceiling fan.  I don't like seeing the light bulb in the light fixture and the covers in their lovely shade of Nicotine don't do much to make me hate it less.  We have plans to replace the ceiling fan entirely but I seriously couldn't look at those covers for another minute.  So Sofia and I went to a lighting store in search of white covers and found some on clearance for $2.50 each.  That's a price right up my alley.  She wrapped them up and while Sofia and Sydney played, I switched them out.

 I KNOW the tiger stripe is weird, but for $2.50 each, we're going with it.

I'm hoping it will spur a certain someone to hate it just enough to get on the Ceiling Fan Replacement Train.

It's not horribly noticeable and the white covers are a huge improvement over the Virginia Slim specials we had going on. 

At least now our beige bedroom isn't bathed in beige light.

SO!  On to the bathroom!

I went with a towel ring and I'm very happy with it.  It matches the faucet and toilet paper holder because with the room being so tiny, non-matching stuff would really stick out.  Then we got some glass shelves from Ikea and Drew hung those for me after I hit them with some Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  I started with a coat of copper so it might look a little more like the faucet and towel ring, but it ended up being too coppery.  At least the oil-rubbed bronze matches the medicine cabinet.

When in doubt, spray it.

We already had these canvases.  They are from Drew's time in Australia, 

and I can't remember if he took them or not. 

I moved Drew's perfumes to the shelves and not much else is living on them right now. 

 That allowed me to tweak the dresser just a little more.

But back to the bathroom.  The thing is, I'm torn as to whether or not it's too much in such a small space.

Are two shelves too much?  Should I do one shelf and some wall art instead?

Should I lower the canvases so they don't crowd the shelves?

I originally hung them higher because I was going to put something on the back of the toilet.

But now I don't know if I'm a stuff-on-the-toilet kind of person.

That picture is an 8x10 - I just put it up there for scale.

Okay, so what say you?  Two shelves or one shelf and wall art?  Lower the canvases or leave them and put some shit on the toilet?  Wait.  No.  What is wrong with me?  Put some plants and books and other acceptable decorations on the toilet.  Gah.  

The hallway is finally painted so I'm going to do a gallery wall as my next project.  I even bought a frame for the thermostat because I've always wanted to do that.

Like this.

Obviously, this won't be the only frame on the wall.

And yes, I'm taking notes from the Masters.

It's so great having an extra pair of hands to help with the baby because getting these small things done makes me feel so much more capable.  I feel like I've actually accomplished something, instead of looking up at the end of the day and having nothing to show for it.

And I wish you could see me right now because I'm sitting in the kitchen typing this and Sofia is sitting on my lap facing me - and nursing.  She's actually swinging her legs back and forth, just as happy as a clam.

So am I.